This thesis aims to investigate whether the presence of subtitles aids viewer comprehension. Additionally, as a subquestion, this thesis also investigates whether a longer subtitle viewing time...Show moreThis thesis aims to investigate whether the presence of subtitles aids viewer comprehension. Additionally, as a subquestion, this thesis also investigates whether a longer subtitle viewing time would lead to more comprehension. A total of 22 Dutch students watched a randomly assigned a subtitled or a non-subtitled clip from the medical drama Chicago Med while their eye movements were tracked. After the eye tracking process, the participants were post-tested on comprehension and detail questions. The results show that the participants with subtitles perform better on the post-test than their counterparts without subtitles on a statistically significant level. In specific, the subtitle group performs better than the non-subtitle group on detail questions. However, contrary to expectations, subtitle viewing time could not be found to be correlated to the performance of the participants. Taken together, the results from the post- test indicate that the Dual Coding Theory is in effect when viewing subtitled audiovisual material. This means that subtitles positively influence the viewer’s ability to register, recall, and understand information and details.Show less
The country of Iran is currently governed by an Islamic regime and religion is a significant notion not only in the ruling system but also in the social and private life of the citizens. The field...Show moreThe country of Iran is currently governed by an Islamic regime and religion is a significant notion not only in the ruling system but also in the social and private life of the citizens. The field of linguistic landscape concerns the visibility and salience of languages on all the signs in a given territory or region and the landscape of cities as social constructs are deeply affected by the two forces: the governments from the top and the people from the bottom. This research explores the religious signs in the linguistic landscape of the city of Najafabad in Iran. The aim of this research is to see how religion manifests in the city and how it functions in the landscape of the city. In order to conduct the research, the signs with religious content are collected, and studied in terms of language use, font, theme and agency. The results reveal that the number of top-down signs surpasses the bottom-up signs. In analysis, it is concluded that in the landscape of the city of Najafabad, religion functions as an ideological tool for managing the landscape and promoting the ideology among the citizens.Show less
Previous research has indicated that individual measures of fluency are often correlated between the first language (L1) and a second language (L2). This suggests that a speaker’s idiosyncratic...Show morePrevious research has indicated that individual measures of fluency are often correlated between the first language (L1) and a second language (L2). This suggests that a speaker’s idiosyncratic speaking style is to some degree also detectable in an L2, at least with regard to fluency. However, less is known about a possible mediating effect of L2-proficiency on this L1-L2 correlation of fluency, that is, does the L1-L2 correlation of fluency become stronger when a speaker’s L2-proficiency is higher? This study aimed to replicate previous findings that individual measures of fluency are correlated between the L1 and L2 with a language pair that has not yet been tested (i.e. L1-Dutch, L2-Spanish). On top of that, it was investigated whether this correlation is stronger in a high L2-proficiency group compared to a low L2-proficiency group. Thirty L1-speakers of Dutch with Spanish as L2 participated in an online survey where oral L1 and L2-speech was elicited through two picture narration-tasks. L2-proficiency was measured through a Spanish vocabulary task. Five measures of fluency were derived from the data: silent pause ratio, mean silent pause duration, silent time ratio, speech rate and articulation rate. The results indicate that the participants were more fluent in the L1 than in the L2 for all five measures. Furthermore, significant L1-L2 correlations were found for all measures except articulation rate. However, no significant distinction could be made between the proficiency groups with regard to the strength of the L1-L2 correlations for all five measures. An exploratory analysis where the proficiency groups were redefined based on self-reported level of L2-proficiency rather than L2-vocabulary score indicated that the low L2-proficiency group facilitated a stronger L1-L2 correlation for mean silent pause duration. No significant effects were found for the other measures. Thus, in this study, no direct indications were found that the L1-L2 correlation of fluency becomes stronger when a speaker’s L2-proficiency is higher.Show less
This study examines the reception by a Dutch target audience of subtitled puns in the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother by expanding on the BA Thesis “Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling of...Show moreThis study examines the reception by a Dutch target audience of subtitled puns in the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother by expanding on the BA Thesis “Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling of Humour in How I Met Your Mother”. For this thesis, a questionnaire is conducted, asking questions about the participants’ viewing habits, their understanding of subtitles and puns, and finally their assessment of four short fragments. The translation strategies that are used in this study are omission, literal translation, and transposition. This reception study is substantiated by previous studies concerning translation strategies, different types of puns, and studies of the reception of subtitles. This is used to prove or disprove the hypothesis that a target audience will experience the most joy in puns that are subtitled using the transposition strategy, since this best conveys humorous instances both creatively and enjoyably. The participants’ answers are analysed and a conclusion is drawn, where recommendations to future subtitlers will be given to improve their subtitling process and enhance the audience’s enjoyment. Lastly, a guide for possible future studies will be implemented.Show less
This study aimed to gain understanding of the directive behavior of 4- and 5- year-old English-speaking children in child-to-child and child-caretaker interactions. The research analyzed 660...Show moreThis study aimed to gain understanding of the directive behavior of 4- and 5- year-old English-speaking children in child-to-child and child-caretaker interactions. The research analyzed 660 directives extracted from 10 hours of video recordings. The findings showed that the compliance with the directive was influenced by the speaker's familiarity with their surroundings and the degree of directness of the directive. Additionally, children who were more familiar with each other used more indirect directives, while 4-year-olds used more indirect directives than 5-year-olds. A pattern was observed where children phrased their directives differently when speaking to a teacher or to a peer, with directives to teachers being less direct and relying more on the teacher's inference skills.Show less
Several studies have focused on the definition of culture-specific items (CSIs), the categorization of CSIs into different types, and the different procedures that can be used to translate them....Show moreSeveral studies have focused on the definition of culture-specific items (CSIs), the categorization of CSIs into different types, and the different procedures that can be used to translate them. Furthermore, many studies have investigated the potential existence of translation norms, which are not directly observable entities that are present within different cultural groups and which influence translation behavior. This study combines the topics of CSIs and translation norms to formulate a potential norm that governs English-to-Dutch subtitling of CSIs in non-fiction television that generally values either source- or target-oriented translations. The two genres of non-fiction television analyzed in this study are reality and documentary television. The existence of a potential translation norm is investigated through data triangulation, which, in this study, means that a corpus as a textual source and a questionnaire as an extratextual source are analyzed. Observable patterns identified in the corpus and potentially normative statements gathered using the questionnaire indicate the existence of a translation norm that values mainly source-oriented translations of CSIs in English-to-Dutch subtitling of non-fiction television. Furthermore, the results indicate that the preferred CSI translations in the documentary series subtitles tend to be more source-oriented than CSI translations in the reality show subtitles. The results also show that the thematic category of CSIs can function as an indicator of whether their translation is generally more source- or target-oriented. Further research is needed to test whether the audiovisual television productions analyzed are representative of English-to-Dutch subtitled reality and documentary television, and whether the questionnaire results, based on a relatively low number of questions and participants, are representative of how a general Dutch audience evaluates CSI translations.Show less
This thesis serves as a first study on the topic of jazz song translation. As there seems to be no previous research by translation scholars on this topic, the aim is to take a broad approach that...Show moreThis thesis serves as a first study on the topic of jazz song translation. As there seems to be no previous research by translation scholars on this topic, the aim is to take a broad approach that might serve as a point of departure for further research. The research question for this study is: “Are there any similarities between the selected jazz song translations that could suggest a general translation strategy for jazz songs?” which is answered through the analysis of three jazz song translations of varying language pairs, chosen to form a broad selection representative of the variety of the genre. The method of analysis is based on Johan Franzon’s concepts of the five choices of a song translator and his three layers of singability, as well as - to a lesser degree - on Peter Low’s Pentathlon Principle. By placing the songs in the framework of five choices and studying the different aspects of the music and lyrics as described by Franzon, the results for the three songs can be compared to detect any similarities that could suggest an overall pattern. Comparison of the analyses points out that the three songs do not have enough in common to suggest a general translation strategy. Nevertheless, this fits into the emphasis within jazz on improvisation, experimentation and individuality, and having ruled out a general strategy clears the way for future research to focus more on unique approaches to jazz song translation.Show less
This thesis examines peace negotiations as a critical discussion, analysing what strategies are used in peace talks and the strategic manoeuvring used in each stage of the argumentative activity...Show moreThis thesis examines peace negotiations as a critical discussion, analysing what strategies are used in peace talks and the strategic manoeuvring used in each stage of the argumentative activity based on the topical potential, audience demands and presentational devices. Following Van Eemeren’s (2010) extended pragma-dialectical theory, the thesis, after establishing the theoretical framework on negotiations as a communicative type, the stages and the participants of a peace negotiation and the peace processes and approaches that are adopted during a peace negotiation, analyses the strategies that are used in each stage of the peace negotiations between the United States and Vietnam, that led to the end of the war in Vietnam and to the signing of a peace agreement between the U.S and Vietnam. The thesis concludes with the identification of strategies used in the U.S and North Vietnam peace talks and a discussion about the degree of success of the strategies used in the U.S and Vietnam peace negotiations that led to the a mutually accepted peace accord.Show less
This thesis questions whether dangling topics, also often called ''Chinese-style'' topics really only occur in Chinese. This is done by investigating Chinese (from mainland China and Taiwan),...Show moreThis thesis questions whether dangling topics, also often called ''Chinese-style'' topics really only occur in Chinese. This is done by investigating Chinese (from mainland China and Taiwan), Japanese, Turkish and Dutch. The results show that dangling topics in Chinese are only possible to a certain extent. Moreover, they are also acceptable in other languages (although mostly in marginal contexts).Show less
Ambiguity resolution has been a topic of debate in language processing models. The present study investigated the impact of punctuation and working memory in Garden Path structures and related...Show moreAmbiguity resolution has been a topic of debate in language processing models. The present study investigated the impact of punctuation and working memory in Garden Path structures and related these concepts with assumptions made under the Good Enough parsing approach. A word-by-word self-paced reading task was used to assess the effects. A backwards digit span and a reading span task were administered to measure the participant’s working memory capacity. The study found evidence for the presence of Garden Path effects in Late Closure structures. In the form of response accuracy to the comprehension questions, the data supports the Good Enough parsing approach’s assumption that ambiguities are not fully resolved. The scores on the backwards digit span task correlated positively with response accuracy on comprehension questions while reading span scores did not. Punctuation did not impact reading time of the disambiguating region nor response accuracy.Show less
